The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
page 333 of 2094 (15%)
page 333 of 2094 (15%)
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with fear, sorrow, &c., which are ordinary symptoms of this disease: so on
the other side, the mind most effectually works upon the body, producing by his passions and perturbations miraculous alterations, as melancholy, despair, cruel diseases, and sometimes death itself. Insomuch that it is most true which Plato saith in his Charmides, _omnia corporis mala ab anima procedere_; all the [1574]mischiefs of the body proceed from the soul: and Democritus in [1575]Plutarch urgeth, _Damnatam iri animam a corpore_, if the body should in this behalf bring an action against the soul, surely the soul would be cast and convicted, that by her supine negligence had caused such inconveniences, having authority over the body, and using it for an instrument, as a smith doth his hammer (saith [1576]Cyprian), imputing all those vices and maladies to the mind. Even so doth [1577]Philostratus, _non coinquinatur corpus, nisi consensuanimae_; the body is not corrupted, but by the soul. Lodovicus Vives will have such turbulent commotions proceed from ignorance and indiscretion. [1578]All philosophers impute the miseries of the body to the soul, that should have governed it better, by command of reason, and hath not done it. The Stoics are altogether of opinion (as [1579]Lipsius and [1580]Picolomineus record), that a wise man should be [Greek: apathaes], without all manner of passions and perturbations whatsoever, as [1581]Seneca reports of Cato, the [1582] Greeks of Socrates, and [1583]Io. Aubanus of a nation in Africa, so free from passion, or rather so stupid, that if they be wounded with a sword, they will only look back. [1584]Lactantius, _2 instit._, will exclude "fear from a wise man:" others except all, some the greatest passions. But let them dispute how they will, set down in Thesi, give precepts to the contrary; we find that of [1585]Lemnius true by common experience; "No mortal man is free from these perturbations: or if he be so, sure he is either a god, or a block." They are born and bred with us, we have them from our parents by inheritance. _A parentibus habemus malum hunc assem_, saith [1586]Pelezius, _Nascitur una nobiscum, aliturque_, 'tis propagated from Adam, Cain was |
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